Thanks Waz, but I think I'll might go down the Jet Black route which will be interesting with a Maple neck ..lol. A photo search on Google shows plenty have taken that path with both White and Black guards. I have a selection of guards for a Tele mostly due to indecision from the denim build so finding one I like shouldn't be too big an issue.

I have some Black shoe ink which parties well with shellac... yep, the stuff to make your shoes Black... and it is a good deep and damn Black... Not sure if I should keep the binding as is or replace it with something else. I still have some Pearl binding from the denim build I could use but I think White could/would be nicer if I went that way. The alternative is to only Black the front, keep the Black binding and keep the sides and back the dark Yellow. It can't be seen in the photos but the sides have gone a lovely and even dark butterscotch colour and few see the back anyway so it will give away the reason as to why the front has been 'inked'....